Halton Hospital trust in running for national dementia care award

Edna Stokes and Deborah Hammond. Warrington And Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been shortlisted in the national Dementia Friendly Awards 2015.

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A pioneering project to boost care for patients from Halton with dementia has been shortlisted for a national gong.

Warrington And Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s (WHHT) pioneering work around improving hospital care for patients with dementia has been shortlisted in the Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Friendly Awards 2015.

The hospitals’ Forget Me Not project was picked as a finalist from among more than 300 entries from across the country.

A WHHT spokeswoman said the scheme has overhauled the hospital’s culture to one the trust said is ‘truly dementia-friendly and aware’.

She said it has created ‘the best possible environment’ for patients who need hospital care, adding that an increasing number of admissions involve dementia cases combined with hospitalisation due to acute conditions.

General wards are not suitable, she said.

In 2013 the trust launched a bid to put best practice into place under an initiative that became known as Forget Me Not.

From nurses developing tools and props to reduce agitation among patients to community groups being encouraged to knit ‘twiddlemuff’ woollen comforters and staff in non-clinical areas becoming Dementia Friends, WHHT said there was a ‘clear movement’ to improve care.

The trust said it wanted to develop a pioneering dementia care environment at Warrington Hospital for patients from across Warrington and Halton.

A team of nurses, doctors, therapists, service users and estates staff came together to develop the ward environment.

A bid for funds from the Department Of Health secured more than £1m.

The 21-bed Forget Me Not unit opened in May 2014.

Jeremy Hunt MP, health secretary, visited in October 2014 and called it ‘the best dementia care environment I have ever seen in an acute hospital’.

Actress Sally Lindsay visited in May 2015 to mark the unit’s first anniversary and spoke of the wonderful people and wonderful place at Warrington Hospital that is changing care for people with dementia.

Mel Pickup, WHHT chief executive, said: “We are thrilled to be a finalist in these awards.“They mark the work that our staff have led to make sure that we are providing the very best in care to our patients who have dementia.

“The Forget Me Not Unit is making a real difference.“Patient and family satisfaction is amongst the highest in the hospitals, there’s evidence that the environment and principles of care adopted by the team mean that patients are calmer and less agitated and the length of stay of patients has been reduced with less readmissions.

“The ward would be nothing without the team who provide the service, and also the wider team across the hospitals on our other wards and departments who have worked to make sure that the entire trust is as dementia friendly as possible.

“We want to be the most dementia friendly acute hospitals in the NHS and being a finalist in these awards shows how far we have come already.”